High Fat Diet Increases Inflammation in the Mouse Colon

"Colorectal cancer, the third most common type of cancer worldwide, has been linked to an increased prevalence of the Western diet: one high in fat and low in fiber, vitamin D and calcium. Now, a team of scientists led by researchers at Rockefeller University have shown what happens to colon tissue when mice are fed such a diet: an inflammatory response that could be the trigger for carcinogenic processes. Their results are published in the November 2009 issue of The Journal of Nutrition...

The researchers fed experimental mice either a standard diet containing five percent fat and ample amounts of calcium and vitamin D or a Western diet containing 20 percent fat and adequate but marginal levels of calcium and vitamin D for three or six months.

As expected, animals consuming the Western diet were heavier and had more fat tissue than those on the control diet."